


I saved a piece for you.

by Ilerre



Series: Ways to Say I Love You [3]
Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Alexandria Safe-Zone, Angst, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Sibling Incest, The Scene of the Interview
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-26
Updated: 2015-08-26
Packaged: 2018-04-17 09:36:37
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,072
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4661754
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ilerre/pseuds/Ilerre
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>I saved a piece for you.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I saved a piece for you.

**Author's Note:**

> **Prompt submitted by Andi:**  
>  **Maybe Merle comforting Daryl after his interview with Deanna? Cuz you know he'd be upset and need Merle.**

0

Daryl was pacing the length of the living room, feeling too jittery and out of place to sit. He felt sitting would just be like admitting defeat, and he wasn't ready for that. Not yet. Not ever. 

They'd been outside for too long, and standing so suddenly in a clean and posh living room was just too surreal. It felt like a lie. Just like that false sense of safety. Daryl was too bitter and wary to just rest and stop this state of hypervigilance that had kept him and Merle alive since the first day of the outbreak.

"Daryl, would you like to sit?"

He didn't look at her, instead he glanced out the window and felt the painful twist in his guts lessen when he saw Merle sitting on the front porch smoking and waiting for him. He couldn't stand to be apart from his brother. They were too dependent on each other, too close, too  _symbiotic_  to separate after everything that happened.

Just thinking about that horrible week after the prison leading to Terminus was enough to fill him with dread at the mere thought of ever being separated from his brother again. 

"Daryl, would you like to sit?" she repeated patiently.

She sounded off. Like those CPS agents who came to their house so many years ago. Pretending to care. Pretending taking him away from Merle was the right thing to do. As if Merle wasn't just about all of Daryl's universe. As if his brother could ever be bad for him. As if they actually cared about what happened to him, and completely ignored Merle and pegged him as a lost cause.

Daryl thought it was what he hated the most. People dissing Merle. People thinking themselves better than the man who gave him everything and raised him, and loved him, and took care of him, and fed him, and saved him.

People like this woman spreading her poison on unsuspecting people. Putting them to sleep by feeding them lies and false truths.

The people of Alexandria were already dead.

Daryl felt sorry for the children and elderly people. He felt sorry the ones who should protect and defend the place were cowards and self-centered people.

There was no place for political agenda in this new world. No place for old and outdated mentality.

That Deanna woman was going to kill them all, and Daryl was damned if he'd let her kill his brother.

"Where were you born, Daryl?" she asked after a moment.

He gritted his teeth and shrugged with one shoulder, one hand gripping the tail of the possum, the other gripping the strap of his crossbow with so much force his knuckles were white. "Does it matter," he muttered and planted himself in front of the window, staring at Merle's back.

His brother knew he was watching him. He could see it in the lines of Merle's body and the minute hesitation of his fingers as the cigarette approached his mouth. He didn't turn because they both knew they had to play their parts in this stupid charade.

No, if he turned, Merle wouldn't be able to stand his little brother's helpless and terrified stare, and just come barge in through the door and take him away from here. Maybe even away from Alexandria.

They'd discussed it that night in the barn. Entwined together and speaking only in murmurs. Should they leave the group? Should they stay? They'd weighed up the pros of cons of this supposedly safe place. Against every instinct, they'd followed the rest of the group, but they still weren't sure to stay.

"At first, I had you and your brother pegged as two very different character, but in fact, you are very much the same," she said with what she passed as a kind smile. Eyes bright, hands clean, nails manicured. "Merle talks a lot, but really, he doesn't say anything in the end. And you, you don't talk at all." She smiled serenely. "Very much the same indeed. I still don't know what to do with you Dixon boys." 

He just sneered and turned around. It wasn't new. He'd heard that all his life. What to do with those troubled Dixon boys. What should we do with them?

"Do you want to be here, Daryl?"

He looked at her sideways and munched on his lower lip, leaning against a wall and turning his back on her. "Boy and the baby, they deserve a roof. I guess," he mumbled around his thumb.

She laughed in surprise. "Good god," she said, her voice full of amusement. "Merle said those exact same words."  

Daryl gritted his teeth in annoyance at her use of his brother's name; as if she had any right to use it, as if she knew him. As if she already knew everything there was to know about the Dixons, and she could just talk about them like that. Daryl barely could stand Carol or Rick passing judgement on Merle's behavior, so having a complete stranger take that sort of freedom was just…maddening. 

"Do  _you_  want to be here, Daryl?" she repeated.

She only seemed to be able to repeat her questions. As if Daryl was too slow, or too stupid to remember what she asked. As if she expected him to answer her questions.

He turned and stared at her for a long moment, accessing, observing. She was dangerous, she was a threat, and she hated him and Merle.

He didn't want anything to do with her anymore.

Narrowing his eyes at her, at her fucking camera, he sneered with a growl and walked briskly to the door, opening and slamming it behind him.

Merle was standing and waiting at the bottom of the porch stairs, and grabbed him around the waist as they walked away from the suffocating house, from the insidious questions, from the inquisitive eyes.

He leaned against Merle, his warmth and smell immediately calming him, and they sat on the porch of the house they shared with the rest of the group. Daryl snuggled up close to his brother and closed his eyes. He felt Merle shift slightly against him, and stared at the half eaten cookie his brother was holding in front of him. "I saved a piece for ya," he said softly against his temple.

Daryl took it and ate it slowly, ignoring the tears rolling down his cheeks.

0

**Author's Note:**

> This work is unbetaed. Please feel free to point any typos you saw or missing words, or any sentences that just don't make any sense :)
> 
> **[SUBMIT A PROMPT HERE](http://hillbells.tumblr.com/submit) ******


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